1) Physiological theories

In his book L’Uomo Delinquente Cesare Lombroso argued that criminals were throwbacks to an earlier and more primitive form of human being. He said there were several characteristics, such as large jaws, extra fingers and monobrows which were clear signs that someone was a criminal.

Lombroso said that we can easily identify who the criminals, so we should remove them from normal society and we can therefore remove any criminals.

Evaluation

Research has found that there is undoubtedly a link between genetics and behaviour; however this does not mean there is a link between genetics and crime. To say crime is caused by genetics alone would be to ignore all the social factors such as wealth, diet, health etc. and these clearly have an effect.

The basic problem with Lombroso’s theory is that it is far too simplistic, and we know there are many more factors that can cause crime then just your genetics.